How do I stake perennials so they do not flop?

Almost all bad staking is late staking. A support put in during spring disappears entirely as the plant grows through it; the same support pushed in around a collapsed clump in July looks exactly like what it is, and cannot restore stems that have already bent or broken. The technique is easy — the discipline is doing it before there is any visible need.

What you'll need

• Grow-through grid supports, hoop stakes or ring supports
• Twiggy prunings — hazel, birch or beech
• Canes
• Soft ties or garden twine
• Mallet, for driving stakes into hard ground (optional)

Step by step

1. Put every support in during April or May.The plant should be short enough that the support sits above it. It then grows up through and hides the structure completely. This is the whole principle.
2. Use a grow-through grid for clump-forming perennials.A flat mesh panel on legs, set at roughly half the plant's eventual height. Stems come up through the mesh and are held. This is the least visible support there is, and it cannot be fitted after the plant has grown.
3. Use a ring or hoop stake for plants that splay outward.Peonies are the classic case — the flowers become impossibly heavy in rain and the clump falls open. A hoop around the outside catches the outer stems. Most hoop stakes can be raised as the plant grows.
4. Use twiggy pea sticks for anything soft-stemmed.Push hazel, birch or beech prunings into the ground around and through the clump in spring and bend the tops inward to make an informal cage. The plant grows into it and hides it completely. It is free, it looks natural, and it is the traditional answer.
5. Use a single cane and ties for a plant with one tall stem.Delphiniums, lilies, gladioli, hollyhocks and individual dahlia stems. Push the cane in beside the crown early, avoiding the roots, and stop it just below where the flower head will be so the flower is not framed by a stick.
6. Tie in a figure of eight.Cross the tie between the cane and the stem so the two are held apart. A tie wrapped round both tightly chafes the stem and can snap it in wind. Use soft twine or proper ties, not wire.
7. Tie at several heights on a tall stem.One tie at the top of a delphinium leaves the stem free to snap below it. Three or four ties up the length spread the load.
8. Match the support to the eventual, not the current, size.Check the expected height on the label or from experience. A support set too low is worse than none, because the plant flops over the top of it in a permanent kink.
9. Consider removing the problem instead.The Chelsea chop makes many late perennials self-supporting. Dividing an overgrown clump, moving a plant out of shade so it does not stretch, and reducing feeding all cut flopping substantially.
10. Check what is actually causing the flopping.Plants flop because they are shaded and drawn, because they are over-fed with nitrogen, because the clump is old and congested, or because they are simply tall plants in a windy spot. Fixing the cause is better than propping up the symptom.

Tips

• Save prunings from a winter hedge or shrub cut specifically for pea sticks. Hazel and birch are the best and cost nothing.
• Home-made supports from bent wire, coat hangers or bamboo triangles work perfectly well and disappear as effectively as bought ones once the plant grows.
• Green and dark-coloured supports vanish visually; bright bamboo canes do not. It is worth a moment's thought in a visible border.
• Support tall plants at the back of a border against a fence with a horizontal string run between two canes — quick, cheap and invisible.

Common mistakes

• Staking after the plant has flopped — Bent and kinked stems do not straighten, and a support added in July always looks like a repair. Everything goes in during spring.
• Tying a single tight loop around stem and cane together — The stem chafes and often snaps at the tie in wind. A figure of eight holds them apart.
• Setting a grid or hoop too low — The plant flops over the top of it in a permanent bend, which looks worse than no support at all.
• Tying a tall stem only at the top — It snaps below the tie. Space several ties up the length.

Questions people ask